All those jocking Avery the coach

[picnroll]

You know who you are. You've ripped Dirk. You've ripped Terry. You've ripped First Half Howard. How about Avery? What grade do you give him in this series?

[Dave McNulla]

i give him an F as coach in the series

i give him an A for class and sportsmanship.

[StylisticS]

F. He set the tone of the series in game 1 and we never recovered. As much as the players need to learn from this, Avery, as a young coach in the NBA, needs to learn from that mistake himself.

[bdictjames]

F

[Marcus Bryant]

What grade did Pop get for last year? The outcome of the Mavs-Warriors series was almost predestined given that GS could force Dallas to adjust their lineup and thereby weaken their defense considerably. Normally it's the Mavs who force other teams to adjust with Dirk at the 4. Pop's had this happen to him (by AJ). So has Larry Brown (by Nellie). I guess they suck too.

[Islymore]

I give him an F- for coaching. He was plain out of it - this whole series. He didn't do anything but feed into GS style of play and that lands squarely on him. Just my .02 tho.

[picnroll]

What grade did Pop get for last year? The outcome of the Mavs-Warriors series was almost predestined given that GS could force Dallas to adjust their lineup and thereby weaken their defense considerably. Normally it's the Mavs who force other teams to adjust with Dirk at the 4. Pop's had this happen to him (by AJ). So has Larry Brown (by Nellie). I guess they suck too.
Based on the results of AJ's adjustments to matchup issues I'd give Pop an A+++++ for last year.

and you can start with AJ's rsting his players at the end except when he played them against the Clips to get a win forcing a matchup with GS. What a dumb ass.

[Marcus Bryant]

The Mavs would've been swept had AJ stuck with his 'normal' rotation.

[Gros Membres!]

i give him an F as coach in the series

i give him an A for class and sportsmanship.
Agreed. He did nothing to stop that 3rd quarter run. While I do chastise Pop for his questionable decision-making at critical junctures, I could not for the life of me understand why AJ did not do more to "stem the bleeding" with lineups, time outs, strategy, etc. The only thing I saw in the 3rd was the hack-a-Biedrens, which Nellie promptly saw through. And how do you not run plays (force!) your MVP to get involved?? Dirk scoring 8 points in an elimination game for the team with the best record in basketball is an embarrassing coaching blunder.

A for the candor of AJ's post-game comments. He was very complimentary toward Davis, Mullins, and the GS Operation while also sharing his shock and disappointment. '95 was the last time he felt like this.

[Dave McNulla]

Agreed. He did nothing to stop that 3rd quarter run. While I do chastise Pop for his questionable decision-making at critical junctures, I could not for the life of me understand why AJ did not do more to "stem the bleeding" with lineups, time outs, strategy, etc. The only thing I saw in the 3rd was the hack-a-Biedrens, which Nellie promptly saw through. And how do you not run plays (force!) your MVP to get involved?? Dirk scoring 8 points in an elimination game for the team with the best record in basketball is an embarrassing coaching blunder.

A for the candor of AJ's post-game comments. He was very complimentary toward Davis, Mullins, and the GS Operation while also sharing his shock and disappointment. '95 was the last time he felt like this.i felt more shock in 2001 than 1995. i guess i can see why he thought 1995 was worse, the spurs had swept the rockets in the reg season, rockets were a six seed.

[SenorSpur]

I also find it interesting that Avery came to the same realization that Pop was confronted with during last season's WCSF - the play of his bigs was negated by the speed of the opposition. Instead of dictating tempo, he relented and went small.

[stretch]

I disagree that Avery should recieve this much heat. If the Mavs didnt choke, and simply made half of the 1,000 wide open shots that they missed, there wouldn't be an issue whatsoever. This team was finding all kinds of good, easy shots that they would normally make, but missed them, and kept fucking up every opportunity that they had to make something happen. That is not Avery's fault whatsoever.

[BigBeezie]

I give him an 'F' for this series, but this doesn't define him as a coach. Though, I don't think Dallas is the place to win a championship as a coach right now. At least not while you have an owner that breathes down your neck and your best player lacks the will to fight and find a way to win.

[timvp]

If Duncan ever played like Dirk did in that series, the Spurs would be lucky to extend it to a fourth game.

[T Park]

Tough for Avery to coach pussys who shrink up.

Nuff said.

[mardigan]

If Duncan ever played like Dirk did in that series, the Spurs would be lucky to extend it to a fourth game.
For sure, thats why the Nuggs won the 1st game last series. Hard to be a good team when your best player sucks ass

[The Truth #6]

I do think Avery stressed the regular season too much and probably peaked too soon. However, that doesn't excuse missing open shots.

I think Stephen Jackson was the most important player in the series because he locked Dirk down and got into his head for much of the series. Dirk should have adapted but Avery should have helped him as well.

[picnroll]

So Avery gets a pass? Really surprising.

How about the brilliant end of season move, resting his starters against GS but playing them heavy minutes to beat the Clips, helping make sure he got the Warriors' into the playoffs, a team that had kicked his butt all season, even before Jack the Mav killer showed up.

[fitzgerald]

Avery gets a huge "F". He talks about the Mavericks getting jumpshot happy and let it continue to happen since last year. At what point was he going to put his foot down? Do the players respect him enough to do it? If they did, then why didn't they drive hard to the basket? Something is wrong there. Defensively, why were GS players so open on fast breaks for open threes? Players were not getting back. Pop would have thrown a fit. I am really beginning to belive hiring Avery was a mistake. He did get them to improve but they definitely were not following directions.

[degenerate_gambler]

AJ rested his starters against GS so they could get the rest.

With GS playing their asses off for the final spot, I wonder if he sat them out not so much for the excuse or resting, but he didn't want his full team beaten by the Warriors that night straight up and then have to face them in the playoffs with that loss still in their minds?

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Avery gets an F, but not necessarily all because of the series.

The simple fact is if they had tried to beat GS at the end of the regular season (and done so), they would have been playing the Clippers and already been in the second round.

Huge strategic blunder by AJ.

[degenerate_gambler]

Avery gets an F, but not necessarily all because of the series.

The simple fact is if they had tried to beat GS at the end of the regular season (and done so), they would have been playing the Clippers and already been in the second round.

Huge strategic blunder by AJ.


I think he knew they couldn't beat them that night with what was on the line for GS and the fact that GS has owned them last year and this year.

[ShoogarBear]

To be honest, I'm not yet sure how much blame lies with Avery.

Yeah, you can start with whether he should have manipulated things so that the Mavs would never have had to play the Warriors. Of course, if he had done that everyone would be talking about how cowardly that was and how he was undermining the confidence of his team. And to be honest, I don't think any other coach in the league, including PJax, would have done it differently.

Dirk was beaten mentally more than anything else. Yes, the Warriors made thing tough for him, but not impossible. AJ tried to snap him out of it when he criticized his shrinking violet statements to the press. Who else could have successfully pushed Dirk's Man-Up button? The Zen Master?

What's being overlooked is that over the past 2-3 weeks of the season, the Warriors were playing as well as anyone in the league, on a very tough schedule. It they make it to the WCF, maybe AJ won't look so bad.

Another real key will be whether Nelson has exposed the weaknesses of Dirk and the Mavs for the rest of the NBA. In which case it's more props to him than AJ's fault.

[LEONARD]

Avery is taking plenty of heat of here...

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Avery always played the game with heart and I think he expected his guys to do the same.

The Mavs that played the Warriors weren't the same Mavs that made the Finals last year. It looked like they expected teams to roll over for them. Last year they played with hunger right up until the Miami beatdown.

I felt sorry for Avery. He looked like he was about to cry in the post game media room interview. His coaching was ok, his players just pussed out on him. Golden State hit them with swagger and bravado and their nutz collectively shriveled.

Expect Cuban to make a few bonehead trades this offseason that effectively kill this team.

[whottt]

When a team chokes like that a great deal of responsibility lies with the coach...there is no way the mental weakness of his teams isn't a reflection of his coaching...

And contrary to the brainwashed masses of SA, that's whole lot like his playing style...Little General...my ass. Mario Elie was the General.



That said...AJ still owned Pop in the playoffs last year, and likely would have again, so it doesn't give us a whole lot of room to talk.

Let's just say that...much like his playing career, AJ is over-rated right now as a coach, including by myself prior to this series.


AJ pouts on the sideline like a 2 year old, almost as bad as Cuban...it's not suprising his team lacks poise.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Nellie owned Avery in coaching decisions, no doubt.